4th COPS meeting, Hohenheim, 25/9/06

CuPIDO(Cumulus Photogrammetric, In-situ, and Doppler observations over Orography)

a survey

July-August 2006Catalina Mountains, Arizona

Bart Geerts and Rick Damiani, University of WyomingJoseph Zehnder, Arizona State University

Mike Leuthold and Robert Kursinski, University of ArizonaBill Brown, Tim Lim, Greg Poulos, and Steve Horst, NCAR

Camera animations of cloud development can be found here.For more recent animations, contact Joe Zehnder.

http://prism.asu.edu/clouds/animations.asp

zehnder@asu.edu

4th COPS meeting, Hohenheim, 25/9/06

Rationale• Cumulus convection

– is the primary mechanism for the vertical transfer of heat, moisture and momentum;

– operates at multiple scales and may transition from shallow to mediocre to deep convection;

– is largely controlled by the environment (stability & shear profile), but also alters it (cold pool development, detrainment aloft);

– in NWP models, cumulus parameterization is poorly coupled with BL parameterization, especially in complex terrain.

• An isolated mountain

– serves as a natural laboratory for the study of cumulus initiation and evolution,

– due to “predictable” anabatic flow.

4th COPS meeting, Hohenheim, 25/9/06

Scientific Objectives

• Describe the initiation of shallow to deep convection and transition

• Broadly speaking, CuPIDO addresses several fronts of atmospheric research:

• fundamental cumulus dynamics• cumulus-environment interaction• surface fluxes and orographic circulations• orographic forcing of cumulus

4th COPS meeting, Hohenheim, 25/9/06

600-800 m

2786 m

20 km

4th COPS meeting, Hohenheim, 25/9/06

size comparisonCOPS „Natural

convection laboratory“

area 270 x 150 km2

Supersite

CuPIDO area 40 x 40 km2

~1000 m from valley to mountain

~2000 m from valley to

mountain

4th COPS meeting, Hohenheim, 25/9/06

facilities

University of Wyoming King Air & Cloud Radar

Arizona State University Digital Cameras(2 stereopairs)

University of Arizona:GPS water vapor

U of A and NCAR & NOAA FSL:WRF modelling

NCAR/EOL 10 ISFF/PAM stations

2 M-GAUS mobile radiosondes

4th COPS meeting, Hohenheim, 25/9/06

Flight summary

Number of flight hours: 60

Number of flights sampling transition from cloud-free to Cu congestus: 8

Number of flights sampling transition to deep convection: 7

Number of flight loops around the mountain, in the convective BL: 50

4th COPS meeting, Hohenheim, 25/9/06

Orographic forcing of boundary layer flow: mass and moisture

convergencePotential Temperature (°K) (aircraft track)

Mixing Ratio (g/kg) (wind barbs)

5 15

300 m AGL

800 m above valley,(643 m below top)

2214 m above valley,(270 m above top)

25 J

uly

2006

, 16:

00-1

6:47

UT

C (

2:44

-3:3

1 hr

s af

ter

sunr

ise)

4th COPS meeting, Hohenheim, 25/9/06

Orographic forcing of boundary layer flow: mass and moisture

convergenceEquivalent Potential

Temperature (°K)

Mixing Ratio (g/kg)5 15

N↑

25 J

uly

2006

, 16:

00-1

6:47

UT

C (

2:44

-3:3

1 hr

s af

ter

sunr

ise)

4th COPS meeting, Hohenheim, 25/9/06

cumulus development

Successive shallow Cu developed, starting at 1735 UTC, and rapidly evolved into congestus two hours later

25 July 2006 1740 UTC 25 July 2006 1935 UTC

4th COPS meeting, Hohenheim, 25/9/06

WCR antenna configurations

Vertical PlaneDual-Doppler

Horizontal Plane Dual-Doppler

Vertical Plane Profiling

4th COPS meeting, Hohenheim, 25/9/06

18 July 2006 16:44:30 – 16:46:30 UTC 18 July 2006 16:48:15 – 16:50:15 UTC

Shallow Cutransects

droplet conctemperature

vertical velocity

density temp

vertical velocityrel. hum.

WCR vertical velocity

WCR reflectivity

wind wind

4th COPS meeting, Hohenheim, 25/9/06

shallow Cuvertical plane dual-Doppler

a section of a turret tilting against the

main wind direction, located 1 km north

of Mt. Lemmon.18 July 2006 18:03:30 – 18:04:20 UTC

4th COPS meeting, Hohenheim, 25/9/06

same cloud, 6 min laterhorizontal-plane dual-Doppler

4th COPS meeting, Hohenheim, 25/9/06

HPDD

• Vertical vorticity and entrainment patterns

• Divergence (thermal top?)7200m MSL, 18 July 2006 18:09:20 – 18:09:50 UTC